While you don't always have to spend big to get the best tech, when it comes to robot mowers, the pricey Husqvarna Automower 450X EPOS proved to be a cut above the competition (technically, I tested the Husqvarna 410XE Nera (9/10, WIRED Recommends), which is the closest model in the UK and Europe). It employs Husqvarna's EPOS (Exact Positioning Operating System) tech and relies on a satellite connection to navigate your chosen virtual boundaries (no wire required). But you do need to install the receiver in an area with an open line of sight to the sky and, ideally, no tall trees or buildings nearby. Setup involves remote control driving the Husqvarna around your garden to map the virtual boundaries. You can have multiple separate areas and potentially cover an area up to 2.5 acres. I marked out my front and back lawns and simply carried the mower between them.

I hate mowing the lawn. First off, a vast expanse of unproductive grass is a waste--why have grass when you could have a garden, or an orchard, or all sorts of other useful plants? That I have to push around a device just to maintain this green wasteland makes it doubly insulting. Fortunately, this summer I unleashed the Husqvarna 435X AWD automower on my lawn. Now I never have to think about mowing it again.

Robot lawnmowers have been around for more a decade, although you'd be hard-pressed to find many in the wild--not because homeowners prefer to tend to their lawns themselves, but because the cost remains a significant barrier to entry. Even mid-range models cost several thousand dollars, and Husqvarna's high-end Automower 435X AWD is certainly no exception. Priced at $5,200, this go-anywhere mower costs more than most high-end riding mowers that can do more than just cut grass. The good news is that you'll get what you paid for. This is an outstanding mower whose two-piece design and all-wheel drive endows it with a tight turning radius to reach every corner of your yard.

Swedish company Husqvarna believes that robotic mowing is the future. From factories to living rooms, robots are being deployed to perform a bewildering array of different tasks. But would you let one mow your lawn? Swedish company Husqvarna believes that robotic mowing is the future. "I believe automation and time savings will be synonymous in the future. As we move to a more data-oriented environment that relies on IOT [Internet of Things] devices and social networks, this will continue to play a vast role in our daily professional and personal lives."

This week at MWC, Husqvarna announced its first all-wheel drive (AWD) option with the 435X. In addition to some other unique features, this new "automower" works with Amazon's Alexa and Google Home to fit in with the rest of your smart home devices. And yes, the integration with virtual assistants means you can control the robotic landscaper with your voice. AWD adds the ability to handle slopes and rough terrain better. Husqvarna says the 435X can handle an incline of up to 70 percent, which is quite steep.

While Americans still wrangle their overgrown lawns by pushing or riding a lawnmower, many Europeans have handed off that responsibility to robots. These beefy, Roomba-like mowers loop their way around a yard, keeping grass trim and neat. To many of their users, the bots are endearing. Their owners give them names or cover them in decals of ladybugs or bumblebees. But the sentimentality only goes so far, because these blades-on-wheels have also been slicing up something other than grass: hedgehogs.

Like a Roomba for your lawn, this low-noise mower creates "carpet-like" lawns without anyone breaking a sweat or needing ear plugs. GPS-assisted navigation works with boundaries established by the user, and guide wires keep the mower from going rogue. All a user has to do is connect the mower to a smartphone via the Automower Connect app and give it commands. This particular model mows up to 1.25 acres, but smaller models of Husqvarna's automowers with fewer features start at $1,999. And don't worry about a passerby swiping this $3,499 machine -- it has an anti-theft alarm and a tracking device.

Since the 1960s, robots have assumed major roles in industrial manufacturing and assembly, the remote detonation of explosives, search and rescue, and academic research. But the devices have remained out of reach, in affordability and practicality, to most consumers. That, according to Professor Andrew Ng, the director of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford University in California, is about to change. One big reason, Mr. Ng said, is the mass production of smartphones and game consoles, which has driven down the size and price of robotic building blocks like accelerometers, gyroscopes and sensors. On the edges of consumer consciousness, the first generation of devices with rudimentary artificial intelligence are beginning to appear: entertainment and educational robots like the Hexy, and a line of tireless household drones that can mow lawns, sweep floors, clean swimming pools and even enhance golf games.

Robots already are integrated into society. Your car can adjust its speed automatically, your door can unlock itself when you approach the house, and your sprinkler system can check the forecast and postpone watering if rain's on the horizon. Can mow on a schedule. Can mow at night and in the rain. Anti-theft system emits a siren and sends GPS coordinates if somebody tries to run off with it.